MOVIE REVIEW: Iron Man

I went to see Iron Man at the Madison Theater in Albany. There were 4 people in the theater - four - on a Sunday afternoon of Memorial Day weekend. This breaks the previous record for second smallest audience I’ve been in for a film. Worse than the six people with whom I saw both "Raising Arizona" and "Requiem for a Dream." The only movie I ever attended with the worst audience numerically was when I sat alone for a matinee showing of "Spy Kids."

Just before I saw the movie, I was playing an album by Pete Townsend called "Iron Man", which was the basis for the animated film "The Iron Giant", which I love. There’s a character in the "Iron Man" movie that looks not unlike a malevolent "Iron Giant." But you’ll have to see that for yourself.

This movie theater showed six previews. One was for the new Indy Jones movie, which had opened nationally, but not yet at that location; maybe I'll see it. The M. Night Shyamalan movie "The Happening"; the title reminds me of a dorky Supremes song that did better on the pop charts than it did the R&B charts; since I still have the Andromeda Strain to watch on the DVR, taped from A&E, I think I'll pass. I'm mortified to note that I laughed, just a little, at the preview for that Adam Sandler Zotan film. There was the Incredible Hulk; I never saw the Ang Lee version from five years back, but this looks interesting. There was The Dark Knight, which seemed to feature the Joker more than Bruce Wayne and Batman combined; I might catch it. The sixth movie I forget; Prine Caspian? The Stranger? I don't remember.

I should note that Iron Man was never my favorite Marvel character. I came to superhero comics in the early 1970s, but I went back to know well the origins of characters such as Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and the Hulk. Yet I wasn't that involved in Iron Man's, save for its Viet Nam roots. Actually, I've just reread it, and it's just not all that interesting. (What IS interesting is that it took Marvel to Volume 20 to put Shell-Head in a Marvel Masterworks, whereas characters such as Spidey and even the Silver Surfer had already warranted multiple volumes.) So, I always felt Iron Man was a minor player, even though he was an Avenger.

That said, all the reviews I’ve seen talk about how great Robert Downey, Jr. is as the snarky Tony Stark, and I have to agree. As a long-time comic book reader, I thought the character was dull, and boring, and a tad bit fascistic. So to see Tony Stark evolve in the movie was a gratifying, rewarding evolution. The change from Southeast Asia to Afghanistan was well-conceived. Jeff Bridges, Gwynneth Paltrow, and Terence Howard were all very strong in their roles. One movie reviewer has suggested that there was more sexual tension between Downey’s Stark character and Paltrow’s Pepper Potts than you might find in your recent lame movie romances such as "27 Dresses" or "Made of Honor." Not having seen either of those films, I can’t speak to the comparison, but there was definitely chemistry there.

Apparently my three compatriots in the theater hadn’t heard about the big reveal at the end of the movie credits, for a couple left as soon as the end credits began, while the other woman departed after the snazzy outro that utilized the music of Black Sabbath. If you somehow haven't seen the movie yet, just wait for it.

ROG

Macca's Route 66

I saw this PETA ad in some magazine recently.

Made me at least think about my carnivore ways.

I love this old piece on Paul McCartney and Jack Kirby.

Paul's still out there playing. Recently he did a benefit concert in Ukraine. One of the songs he sang in Ukraine, of course, was Back in the USSR. Here's an interesting cover:


One of my favorite Paul songs with his first group:


Paul turns 66 today. Happy birthday.

***
Willie Randolph was 86'd by the NY Mets. Yes, the team is better than the record, but I almost never favor in-season managerial replacements.
***
I was watching ABC News last night, and the segment they showed in observation of Cyd Charisse's passing happened to be this first piece I found on YouTube searching by her name, from about 50 seconds in, and running just over a minute. It also features some other dancer of note:

I remember seeing her well past her prime, probably on some awards program, and she STILL had great legs.

ROG

Songs That Move Me, 80-71

80. The Ostrich - Steppenwolf.
I discussed this song here.
Feeling: ticked off.
It's HERE.

79. (Sweet Sweet Baby) Since You've Been Gone - Aretha Franklin.
One of the things I hated about AM radio when I was growing up is the fact that disc jockeys would talk over the instrumental opening. I swear that this intro was designed specifically to avoid that. Highlight musically is the sweet crescendo of the horns.
Feeling: joyful.


78. 21st Century Schizoid Man - King Crimson.
An intriguing song. Starts of like a loud dirge, then breaks into an almost jazzy center. Quite odd.
Feeling: a little schizo.
OR HERE.

77. Face the Face - Pete Townsend.
Those big drums almost always surprise me, not in this live version, but in the video below.
Feeling: like dancing.

Miami Vice!


76. I'm So Glad - Cream.
It has to be the live version from the Goodbye Cream album; no other version excites me like that one. It's the Jack Bruce vocals and especially the instrumental breaks.
Feeling: well, glad.


75. Fame - David Bowie.
Besides the hook, I most appreciate the descending line of the vocal near the end.
Feeling: like dancing.


74. King Harvest - The Band.
From "the brown album", the second album, it's the last song on the LP. It's the vocals and the lyrics: "My horse Jethro, well he went mad." A song of my high school days.
Feeling: like having a piece of grass between my teeth.


73. I'm Free - the Who.
The beginning of this song is out of sync with the rest. There's a drum fill before the first time you hear "And freedom tastes of reality." The live versions never compare to this because they're usually played correctly. I like the descending line vocal at the end and the instrumentation in the middle. BTW, I have no idea what this video is.
Feeling: Tension until it gets back on track musically.


72. Celtic Rock - Donovan.
The druids are coming. Last song, first side of the Open Road LP.
Feeling: spooky.


71. Twist and Shout - the Beatles

It's John shredding his voice and those ascending thirds.
Feeling: Joyous.
ROG

30 things to know or do by the time you’re 30

I'm 55, so "thirty things to know or do by the time you’re 30" intrigued me. Am I a victim of arrested development? Per the Times Union's Kristi Gustafson; some of these are damn familiar...

To take your hat off while eating.
Well, yeah. But, and this must go back to some archaic time, I thought the rules for men were different from the rules for women, though I never understood why.

To bring a hostess gift.
I never quite understood the point of this. Someone invites you to an event and I'm supposed to bring something? I mean, I have brought bottles of wine to a party, but i don't think this is what she's talking about. Now, my WIFE has had us bring hostess gifts. Does that count?

Have a valid passport.
Yes. Expires July 2011, just as I'm planning a trip to Canada. Really. And we're trying to suss out just what we need for the child.

How to make small talk.
I used to be REALLY good at it. The skill has dissipated.

Your credit score.
Yes, and it's not bad.

And your blood type.
Be positive.

How to do laundry.
I was single for a LONG time. Yes, I know how, and I still have romantic sentiments towards the laundromat, even though we have a washer and drier at home.

And scramble eggs.
Probably since I was eight.

Your parents’ birthdays.
September 26, November 17.

How to drive a stick shift.
Well, no. I got into a screaming fight - she was doing most of the screaming - the one time someone, in this case my girlfriend at the time, tried to teach me to drive a stick. "YOU'RE BURNING OUT MY CLUTCH!!!" Haven't even TRIED since.

And order a bottle of wine.
Beyond the red with meat, white with chicken, not so much.

How to set up, and check, bank and credit card balances online.
Could. Don't.

How to wrap a gift.
Depends on your standards. It's good enough for me.

Own a suitcase.
Two, actually, not including the ancient one.

Have a local florist, not 1-800 FLOWERS.
Yes.

How to negotiate.
Hate negotiating.

And compromise.
Often compromise.

How to jump a car/change a tire.
Have done both so long ago that I doubt I could do it currently.

Have a retirement plan.
Yes, and it's taken a bath the last six months.

When to stop drinking.
Trial and error, but yes. Even know the date of my first hangover 6/9/76; went horseback riding that day.

How to file a complaint.
Have done so, with businesses and the state attorney general

How to make a bed - complete with hospital corners.
No. I once had this conversation with one of my sisters who made my bed, "Now doesnn't that feel better?" No, it doesn't; it makes me feel claustrophobic. I can kick out hospital corners in a half night of sleeping.

How to play a sport (excelling not required).
Racquetball, yes.

How much cologne is too much.
Don't wear, but I've smelled it when others have applied too much.

When you need a dinner reservation.
Yes> I was in Charlotte, NC and I had recommended making reservations on a Saturday night. The folks thought it was unnecessary; it was their town, so I yielded. We ended up bailing on choice #1 (90 minute wait), and finding choices 2-5 to be equally inaccessible. We ended up at Pizza Hut at 9:20 pm.

How to read the bus schedule.
I excel at reading the bus schedule.

To tip the maid in a hotel.
Yes.

To make exceptions for children, and seniors.
Yes.

How to apologize.
I really believe so. It does not include "if".

How to give a good hug.
Actually, I'm very good at this.
ROG

Another Father's Day

My maternal grandfather, Clarence Williams, played in the Negro Leagues in 1930s. I’ve never been able to track down any statistics or even exactly what team he played for, though my grandmother thought he played for some team called the Giants. There were several "Giants" teams in the day.

The person I knew as my paternal grandfather, McKinley Green, I’ve mentioned before in these pages. He was a janitor, auto racing connoisseur, and loved the horses. I’ve never found the person who was my real paternal grandfather. I’ve long had a very complicated relationship with my father, who died in 2000, and I'm still looking for information about him.

When I became a father in 2004, I had a great deal of optimism about the world. I still love being a father, but the world? I’m not so sure about it. I guess I wanted the world to be freer now than when she was conceived, and I'm not at all feeling that's the case. I want it to be safer, and given tornadoes in unusual places, more violent hurricanes and the like, not so certain about that one.

There are are some men who just always wanted to be a dad, but I wasn't one of them. I like being Lydia's dad - I LOVE being Lydia's dad - but we're getting a lot of those "Are you going to have another?" questions. That's nobody's business, of course, but I suspect if we were to have another child, he or she would be adopted. In fact, in the period we were "trying to get pregnant", we got a lot of literature on the topic. We're not actively pursuing the issue now, but if we do, you'll be the 100th to know.

I got a handmade card and a two peas in a pod thingy for Father's Day. I do enjoy this part.

I'm watching the Tonys tonight, my annual opportunity to say, "So THAT'S what (name of actor better known for TV or movies) has been doing lately. I thought maybe he was retired. Or dead." I expect this person will watch; since Whoopi Goldberg is hosting, I'd bet money that this guy won't be tuning in.
***
Evanier has on his page this Fiddler on the Roof/Avenue Q mashup. I LOVE Fiddler and plan to see Avenue Q this fall.
ROG

Russert, Sports, Obamas

Yeah, I know I've written a lot about dead people lately, but-
This one was only three years older than I, a political and news junkie from upstate New York, just like me. I RELATED to Tim Russert. He worked for politicians I had voted for, Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Mario Cuomo. He was a sports fan. I did not always agree with him. But more than most in his profession, I thought he tried hard to be fair. And he clearly enjoyed his work.

So, I get a terse New York Times message at 3:28 pm, "Tim Russert, the host of the NBC program 'Meet the Press,' has died of an apparent heart attack at age 58, his family confirmed." No story, just a sub-headline. No story on the NBC networks. But soon enough, I found it was all too true, as Tom Brokaw broke the news:

I did not know that he was on the board of the Baseball Hall of fame until I read about it yesterday.

This begs a different question for me. Why did I continue to listen to the news on MSNBC for another hour after his death was confirmed? Why did I watch the CBS Evening News, which Harry Smith was anchoring, but for which Katie Couric showed up to tearfully explain how Russert had hired her to be deputy Pentagon correspondent for NBC some years ago? I don't know. Sometimes, you keep watching to try to make sense of it all.
***
The good news is that In a blow to Bush, the Supreme Court restores habeas corpus re: Gitmo. the bad news? It was a 5-4 vote, and most of the five are considerably older than the four.
***
Apparently, the FOX News 'baby mama' comment towards Michelle Obama was, I've read. FOX trying to be cool by referencing the Tina Fey movie that came out a little while back.
***
The basketball officiating scandal had specifically targeted game 6 of a series between Sacramento and the LA Lakers. Apparently, there is a group called the League of Fans who had complained about this years ago. The founder of the League of Fans? Ralph Nader? The page looks as though it was all but defunct for about a year, except for a recent flurry of press releases. the group also has taken positions on steroids, public financing of stadiums and other topics. Interesting, albeit somewhat dated stuff.
ROG

Triskaidekaphobic? Not me.

No, I can have "bad luck" any time, usually brought on myself.

1. I went to the local comic book store on Free Comic Book Day last month and bought a book called Persepolis, actually The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi, which is about that Iranian girl talking about the period before and after the rise of the Ayatollah Khomenini. It was made into an Oscar-nominated film in the past year that I meant to see but didn't; it'll be out on DVD June 24. See, FCBD CAN generate sales.

Generally, I don’t bring books with me when I travel, but I was so intrigued about reading this particular book that I took it with me when I went to my work conference the day after FCBD. Naturally, I left it at the hotel. I realized this even before I got home and called the hotel to ask them if they could send it to me, and they replied quickly. What I didn’t know was that the charge for sending me the book would be $30 – at least $5 more than I paid for the book in the first place. The actual shipping cost was $10.40, but there was a COD charge. And it would have been $1.60 more if I had paid in cash, for then the post office would have had to pay to buy a money order to send to the hotel. Now I could have just blown it off, and bought a new copy of the book, but since I had initiated them sending it to me, I felt it was my error and that I should just eat the extra cost.

2. My friend Uthaclena came up to help me fix my computer. We went out and bought some wine after dinner and I put one of the bottles in the freezer. The next day I opened the freezer door to find that the cork had popped out of said bottle with slushy alcohol across the bottom of the freezer. Fortunately, it spilled only about 10% of the volume. I sat the wine on the counter and it reconstituted into the potable beverage. I suppose it could have been worse; the bottle could have exploded, with broken glass everywhere.

Oh, I must thank my friend Lori in Florida, who I knew from when we went to church together about a decade ago. Because of my injury, she was kind enough to let me dictate content to her over the phone, type it, then e-mail it to me. She did this for about seven posts, including today's, and I am most grateful.
ROG

The Last Hall of Fame Game

You may have heard that the Hall of Fame Game in Cooperstown, an exhibition contest between two major league teams, will be having its last outing this coming Monday. Some writers have suggested that it’s a "que sera sera" moment, that "all things must pass", that should end because it's not practical. I wonder if they’ve actually ever gone to this game.

Have they seen the parade?





Have they checked out the guy guy in the No. 7 Yankee car who looks a little like Mickey Mantle – and who, incidentally, is a bartender at a local resort?

Have they seen the kids who scurry for the candy being tossed from the cars, snacks that they can easily get cheaply at the local CVS? It reminds me of tourists grabbing for cheap beads they pass out during Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

And then you get to see the players in the trolley cars, with you trying to suss out the ones you actually might recognize.

You get to the stadium and you have the home run hitting contest, where almost inevitably some player you’ve never heard of beats out the league home run champion from the previous season.

You take your score card and you dutifully mark down the names of the starting lineups, but it’s of no use, for they brought in all these extra players from AA, whose names aren't all on the rosters - check out all those uniforms with the numbers is the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s - and the managers put them in and out of the game like origami.

My father-in-law Richard and I have gone to this game for 8 of the last 9 years. The only season I missed was the year after the Red Sox first won the World Series this decade, and he was able to secure tickets for that game the day of. Not so incidentally, he took all of these pictures.

Last year when I went to the game between Toronto and Baltimore with my father-in-law, there were five home runs hit just in our outfield section. One landed to my right and then careened to my left in front of my face. Another was just beyond our reach.

But my favorite part of the Hall of Fame Game involved begging the center fielder to throw the ball to your outfield section after his warm-ups with the left fielder. In fact, last year’s center fielder for the Toronto Blue Jays, Vernon Wells, was a master, systematically taunted each section with the ball, throwing it to one area only to reveal a secret second ball in his pocket, which he then tossed to the other section. It was marvelous theater, and great fun.

I understand the logistical difficulties of Major League teams showing up in this tiny Otsego County burgh, but I don’t think the solution to this game/issue is to put an International League game there as some have suggested. There was an IL game played this year between Syracuse and Rochester, and the Syracuse team perhaps can continue to host the game, but it would be a weak substitute. Did you know the single A (short season) Oneonta Tigers already plays a game on Doubleday Field annually and before them, the Oneonta Yankees? It's hardly comparable.

What would be more interesting would be to have an old-timers' game played at the Field. In fact, this suggestion was floated about by the long-time fans of the game when they were standing in line waiting for tickets on a cold winter afternoon. There are already many baseball veterans who line the streets on the two Hall of Fame parade weekends selling autographs, so it is a natural extension of what’s been going on already in the town.

A more radical idea is to have a game between a couple teams there count in the standings. I'm not suggesting it - yet - but the notion intrigues.

In some form, Doubleday Field deserves Major League baseball.

ROG

Songs That Move Me, 90-81

90. Wah Wah - George Harrison.
On an album, All This Must Pass, of mostly lovely little tunes, this really rocks. I love the harmonies. And is that a race car engine revving at the end?
Feeling: like playing air guitar.


89. Police on My Back - the Clash.
Just for that guitar line that sounds like a UK siren. The harmonies aren’t as apparent in this version, but the frentic energy certainly is.
Feeling: slightly paranoid.


88. Cancer - Joe Jackson.
The juxtaposition of the topic "there's no cure, there's no answer" with the jaunty, piano-driven tune fascinated me. From side 2 of the LP Night and Day. This is a live version, which I ALSO own.
Feeling: conflicted.


87. Born To Run- Bruce Springsteen.
Anthemic, from the drum intro on.
Feeling: see title.


86. Rock Lobster - the B-52's.
The "hook" is in the very beginning. I especially like the Yokoesque segment.
Feeling: in the mood for seafood.


85. Kiko and the Lavender Moon - Los Lobos.
Based on Three Blind Mice, this is just a weird, weird song.
Feeling: if I HAD taken it, I'd be experiencing an acid flashback.


84. Winter Snow - Booker T. & The MG's
This is only 30 seconds of this, which does not give the full mood of the piece. From the Album Stax/Volt - The Complete Singles 1959-1968 - Volume 8.
HERE.
Feeling: melancholy.

83. Sail On Sailor-the Beach Boys.
The first song on the Holland LP. This was released twice as a single, somebody believed so much in it, but it was never more than a moderate hit, which surprises me, because I just love it.
Feeling: nautical.


82. Maybe - Alison Krauss.
I wish I could explain musical things better, but in the chorus, but the way the chord resolves in the chorus always moved me. Bonus: Carol and I saw this tour in 2003.
Feeling: a bit melancholy.


81. Summer in the City - Lovin' Spoonful.
A song I could play on the piano, albeit poorly. The intro, and the instrumentation at the end makes it for me.
Feeling: dirty and gritty..

if this is gone:

***
So you want to write a fugue by Glenn Gould.


ROG

Skills

I received my copy of the Hembeck book - don't say "What Hembeck book? - THE Hembeck book! and devoured it in one sitting.
OK, I jest. In fact, the book comes with a warning NOT to try to read it all at once. Rather, I've been concentrating on reading the chapter intros, including the teaser by Fred's uncle, Stan Lee; I love how he calls Fred Hemby. THEN, I'll read the actual stories, probably skipping over the FantaCo stuff for now, but coming back to eventually, since I was all very fond of it. I'm named in the acknowledgments; thanks, effendi! there was one page I ran into, though, that filled me with horror - a picture of the X-Men! It was originally on a gold sheet - which I still have, BTW, that I had to pack with every single retail copy of Hembeck 1980, but it was wider than the book, Wotta pain.
Fred notes that the book has been reviewed favorably by Entertainment Weekly!
***
Lydia had reached her 30 minute max of videos last evening. I turned off the DVD, and the TV just happened to be on ESPN. Ken Griffey, Jr., on the first pitch I saw, became the sixth man in MLB history to hit 600 home runs. Congrats to him, and to Michael Strahan, the NY/NJ Giants' defensive end who announced his retirement yesterday. Each will be in their respective Halls of Fame eventually.
***
Skills: I got 'em? From Jaquandor, again, who writes:
"Bill Altreuter points to this list of 75 things every man should be able to do, I guess, in order to be able to really lay claim to true manliness or something. Surprisingly, Bill doesn't do what bloggers are supposed to do in such cases: reproduce the list, with specific comment on his ability, or lack thereof, to do the things on the list. Well, unto the breach I go!"

1. Give advice that matters in one sentence. Sure, sometimes with one word: "listen."

2. Tell if someone is lying. Most people think they can tell a liar all of the time, and that's simply not true for most of us.

3. Take a photo. Well, not a fancy one.

4. Score a baseball game. Actually, yes. Something I do with my father-in-law at least a couple times a year,

5. Name a book that matters. Feh. Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. But I don't much like the question.

6. Know at least one musical group as well as is possible. Probably do with the Beatles. Also, Paul Simon, but he's not a group.

7. Cook meat somewhere other than the grill. Actually I cook meat anywhere EXCEPT on a grill. I don't own a grill.

8. Not monopolize the conversation. Quite conscious of this, especially with women; men are more prone to it, in my observation.

9. Write a letter. Used to do it all the time.

10. Buy a suit. I bought two last year. Hate it. Hate it.

11. Swim three different strokes. I only have one, and I don't know what it is.

12. Show respect without being a suck-up. I believe so.

13. Throw a punch. Well, no.

14. Chop down a tree. I've cut a Christmas tree. But I'm reminded of a next door neighbor when I was growing up, who was cutting down a big tree in their yard. My father told them they would hit their house. They told him to shut up and mind his own business. The tree crashed into the roof of their house.

15. Calculate square footage. Sure.

16. Tie a bow tie. No. For the half dozen times I have worn one, learning how to do it was not worth it. That's why God created clip-ons.

17. Make one drink, in large batches, very well. Never had need.

18. Speak a foreign language. Everybody should be able to do this. I can't, except for an extremely basic comprehension of French left over from my high school days.

19. Approach a woman out of his league. This "league" thing; eh.

20. Sew a button. I've done it. It takes me forever, and I do it badly.

21. Argue with a European without getting xenophobic or insulting soccer. OK.

22. Give a woman an orgasm so that he doesn't have to ask after it. OK, but oy. Among other things, it assumes heterosexuality.

23. Be loyal. Depends.

24. Know his poison, without standing there, pondering like a dope. Sure.

25. Drive an eightpenny nail into a treated two-by-four without thinking about it. I can drive it, but I'm always thinking about it, or rather, my fingers.

26. Cast a fishing rod without shrieking or sighing or otherwise admitting defeat. I haven't fished since I was a child.

27. Play gin with an old guy. I used to play with my grandfather when I was in high school. The same guy who took me fishing.

28. Play go fish with a kid. I have.

29. Understand quantum physics well enough that he can accept that a quarter might, at some point, pass straight through the table when dropped. 'Fraid not.

30. Feign interest. I used to be better at it.

31. Make a bed. I can do this. I never actually do this, but I can, which I guess is the important thing. Bed-making has never struck me as being a terribly useful or important thing.

32. Describe a glass of wine in one sentence without using the terms nutty, fruity, oaky, finish, or kick. Sure - it's yummy.

33. Hit a jump shot in pool. I did it once; it was an accident.

34. Dress a wound. I've done it.

35. Jump-start a car (without any drama). Change a flat tire (safely). Change the oil (once). I've done them all successfully, but so long ago that I'm not sure I could replicate.

36. Make three different bets at a craps table. Never played.

37. Shuffle a deck of cards. Actually quite good at it.

38. Tell a joke. No, I suck at it. I can say funny things, but I can't even REMEMBER jokes.

39. Know when to split his cards in blackjack. I'll just check here; even before looking at that, I knew you always split 8s, but I didn't know why.

40. Speak to an eight-year-old so he will hear. I have.

41. Speak to a waiter so he will hear. I have.

42. Talk to a dog so it will hear. I have, but not very often.

43. Install: a disposal, an electronic thermostat, or a lighting fixture without asking for help. Well, a light bulb.

44. Ask for help. Absolutely.

45. Break another man's grip on his wrist. Hasn't come up.

46. Tell a woman's dress size. If women's dress sizes were standardized, maybe this would be useful.

47. Recite one poem from memory. "There once was a girl from Cape Cod..."

48. Remove a stain. I have.

49. Say no. Sometimes, more now that before.

50. Fry an egg sunny-side up. Yes.

51. Build a campfire. Another skill everybody should have, probably.

52. Step into a job no one wants to do. Happens a lot.

53. Sometimes, kick some ass. Define.

54. Break up a fight. Have done this.

55. Point to the north at any time. Sometimes, not always.

56. Create a play-list in which ten seemingly random songs provide a secret message to one person. Have done.

57. Explain what a light-year is. I can do this.

58. Avoid boredom. I'm almost never bored, left to my own devices.

59. Write a thank-you note. I can, but don't do enough.

60. Be brand loyal to at least one product. There must be one; it's not coming to me.

61. Cook bacon. Yes.

62. Hold a baby. Yes, but not until Carol was pregnant.

63. Deliver a eulogy. Yes.

64. Know that Christopher Columbus was a son of a bitch. Sure.

65-67. Throw a baseball over-hand with some snap. Throw a football with a tight spiral. Shoot a 12-foot jump shot reliably. I used to; I have by accident; I suck at basketball.

68. Find his way out of the woods if lost. Have done it.

69. Tie a knot. Have.

70. Shake hands. It IS skill. Yes.

71. Iron a shirt. Can. Don't like to.

72. Stock an emergency bag for the car. Yup.

73. Caress a woman's neck. Oh, yes. And speak the language of love! (Not French, either.)

74. Know some birds - But only ornithologically.

75. Negotiate a better price. I hate haggling. I've done it, but was more of "I just won't pay that much" and the dealer started the offering me a deal.

ROG

Almost Another Ghost Bike

Last Monday, my daughter Lydia needed to see her allergist, who was located in Corporate Woods, same area as my office, so I didn't take my bike to work. In small recompense for that, I decided to ride to the local CVS drug store to drop off her prescriptions, then after dinner to ride back and pick them up.

I'm on West Lawrence Street at Madison Avenue, heading south, when I hit a red light. So I opted to turn left into the Mobil station. Suddenly, I see a car bearing down on me; the driver must have gotten his or her license from the Starman* school of automobile operation, as it had crossed Madison actually on the red light. I scream the s-word, one of those times that I think cursing is definitely appropriate. (Another time was getting a nail in my foot in 2000.)

I brake, of course, but I'm already over the center lines, so I also lean to my right and back. Somehow, I end up on the ground. Did the driver stop? No, but then he or she didn't hit me, only almost did so.

When I catch my breath, I realize that I'm really sore on my left side. I drag my bike and myself to the grassy area in front of a theater, #10 Steamer Company, and just sit there for a few minutes. An EMT is stopped at the light, talking on a phone; I almost try to signal him, but choose not to. A couple minutes later, a woman drives by to see if I'm OK. I lie and say I'm fine. Finally, I get up, walk to the CVS, drop off the scripts, and ride home on the sidewalks. (Yes, I know I know I'm not supposed to, but I was feeling a little shaky, and walking was taking too long for the pain I was in.)

I tell the tale to my wife Carol, and she agrees to drive me to the urgent care place on Patroon Creek, parallel to Washington Avenue, after dinner. We figure that this is probably a better choice than the ER of a hospital. Of course, Lydia has to come too.

It is a bit surreal. I walk into the place, and I see a TV showing an episode of Seinfeld, with Jerry, George, and Elayne waiting in a hospital waiting room. This episode also features Jerry, Newman and Kramer waiting at a bedside of someone, George forgoing a trip to the Cayman Islands, and Drake coffee cakes. The next show, some CW soap with Blake Lively and Kelly Rutherford, I was trying to distract the four-year old daughter from watching.

Finally - and it was less than a half hour - I get taken into a room, and have my vitals taken. It was peculiar that I was feeling both hot and cold. Then I was examined by the doctor. Somehow, old Bill Cosby routines came rushing into my head. "Doctors are wonderful people, but they're always touching something. 'Does that hurt?' YEOW! Does that hurt! Does that hurt!'" He asks me where I'm in pain, and I'm trying to use my right hand to show him where on my left side I'm bothered. Then he starts poking around. YEOW! Does that hurt! Does that hurt!

I go to get x-rays. Like Cosby's doctor's stethoscope, the x-ray machine felt as though they stored it in the refrigerator. Diagnosis: broken 6th rib on the left side, under my armpit, possibly from the handlebars, but I don't know for sure. Treatment: rest; they don't tape you up for this anymore. Also, be sure to breathe deeply and cough regularly, lest I develop pneumonia.

My wife takes the daughter and me home, then gets my pain reliever prescription filled at an all-night CVS; the one I dropped the daughter's Rx is closed. Carol's sleeping pattern skews early, so for her to go out at 10:30 pm to take a 15-minute ride to Colonie, wait 30 minutes for it to be filled, then drive the 15 minutes home is quite remarkable.

Unfortunately, my daughter became very wary of me ever since she jumped on me that night, and I screamed, "Lydia, no!" I apologized the next day. She will play Candyland with me, but there was definitely arm's-length tension there until Saturday.

I've been sleeping in the recliner ever since, with a sofa pillow next to my left side because I can't find anywhere else to sleep without tremendous pain. Other things that cause discomfort:
*the recommended deep breathing
*the recommended coughing
*laughing
*burping
*hiccuping
*bending over
*reaching with my left arm
*lifting things too heavy, even with my right arm
*walking down stairs (up is not so bad, though for the first couple days, I had to stop ever other step to catch my breath)

Also, the medicine can make one constipated. Gotta love those dried apricots.

The bad news is that I find it difficult to focus on reading or writing, and sleep is intermittent throughout the day, though the reading became easier as the week progressed. The good news is that I've caught up on watching JEOPARDY! Hey, there was a winner from East Greenbush, Pat Roche, a couple weeks ago!

The better news is that I did not end up being commemorated with a ghost bike, as a number of folks in this area have recently. A single broken bone and a couple bruises is a far better outcome than I quite literally feared.

* Jenny allows the alien to drive the car when he peels out. Jenny screams at the Starman that she thought he said he could drive. Starman replies: "I watched you very carefully. Red light stop, green light go, yellow light go very fast."
***
I figure I'd been watching Jim McKay from the time I was 8 or 9, usually watching ABC's Wide World of Sports with my grandfather, through dozens of different sporting events, including the 1972 Munich Olympics, until I saw him anchor football game coverage only a few seasons back. So we're talking well over 40 years of "the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat." CBS News had a nice piece on him here, not that surprising since 1) he started on CBS, and 2) his son, Sean McManus is the head of CBS Sports. Here's an extensive, 2 1/2 hour interview with McKay in six parts. I particularly recommend the last segment, only 10 minutes long, where he talks about others.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6

ROG

A gay pride march

Back on March 9 of this year, there was this story in the Times Union by Jennifer Gish titled "Humanity in 'Laramie': High school actors project offers lesson on more than gay tolerance". It was about Bill Ziskin, a teacher at Schenectady High, directing his young actors in Moises Kaufman's "The Laramie Project." Gish writes: The play is based on interviews conducted by New York theater students with the townspeople of Laramie, Wyo., after the 1998 ultimately fatal beating of gay college student Matthew Shepard. Because of its mature nature and strong language, Ziskin did
run the idea by school administrators before going ahead with it... Today, it's hard for some of the kids to imagine that kind of brutality. One of the actors was quoted as saying, "When they told us about it I thought it was something that happened a while ago, like the '70s or the '80s."

Ah, the optimism of youth. Earlier this year, though the stories I read were about a month after the fact, a Gay California student’s slaying sparks outcry, and "Activists demand that middle schools do more to teach tolerance." Lawrence King -- Student Who Was Murdered For Being Gay -- To Be Honored With National Day Of Silence. I heard there was a similar case in Florida recently like the California case cited.

As for that day of silence, in some places such Mount Si High School in Snoqualmie, WA, it was anything but, as I read this Seattle Times account Lynn Thompson. Unfortunately, I actually sort of know one of the people protesting against gay acceptance.

As New Yorkers almost surely know, the governor of the state has ordered government agencies to recognize gay marriages that were performed in states and countries where they are legal. While, for at least one of my gay blogging colleagues, marriage is not such an overriding issue, for others ,it is of paramount importance.

I note all of this as my church plans once again to participate in the gay pride parade next Sunday. that same gay blogger I know opined that the idea of a march might have been diluted by corporate interests. I think we agreed that MAYBE in locations with a large gay population, such as New York City and San Francisco, it has lost its urgency. I'm convinced, however, that it still has meaning and efficacy in places like Albany, NY.



ROG

The Sexiest Vegetarian

First, I MUST recommend Steve Bissette's recollection of FantaCo's horror publication Gore Shriek. Here's Part 1 and Part 2, with more parts promised. I'm particularly interested in the future installments since they took place after I left FantaCo in November of 1988. Even if you're not into horror, it is an interesting tale about artists, editors and publishing.
***
Also, Librarian 2008 responds to my tag.
***
I did not known until recently that June is Black Music History Month. Once upon a time, there were no black people on MTV videos. Hard to believe now, but the company thought their audience would shy away if certain performers showed up. After SONY forced MTV's hand and got Michael Jackson on the network, one of the ubiquitous performers was Prince Nelson Rogers.

It's peculiar that Prince is lashing out at YouTube, eBay and The Pirate Bay, as I think those videos are keeping him in the mindset of folks. Even funnier is this story where a Mother protects YouTube clip by suing Prince.

Prince turns 50 today. At least his name is pronounceable now. Who knows how long these clips will be available?

From my two favorite Prince albums:

Purple Rain


and Sign O' the Times



I also own Dirty Mind, Controversy, 1999, Around the World in a Day. The Black Album, Batman, and a 2 CD greatest hits. I also have a 12-inch, 7-minute version of Let's Go Crazy.

Here's a song, like the Sinead O'Connor tune i posted on Wednesday, written by Prince:


Finally, a George Harrison tribute I remember watching at the time it first aired. His Purpleness really kicks about three minutes in:

My Ambivalence About Bobby Kennedy

I first realized that I didn't much like Robert F. Kennedy when he decided to run for the U.S. Senate from the state of New York in 1964. There were three overriding factors:
1. I had heard that the FBI was bugging Martin Luther King, Jr., and I felt that as U.S. Attorney General, he was responsible.
2. We had a perfectly good moderate Republican senator in Kenneth Keating, in the Jacob Javits tradition. I know some of you are too young to remember moderate Republicans. They existed. Really.
3. I had read a syndicated column in the morning newspaper in Binghamton, the Sun-Bulletin, where William F. Buckley compared RFK to a "carpetbagger". Of course, his own brother, James, would move into New York, to run for and win a Senate seat in 1970; the tradition continued with Hillary Clinton in 2000.

BTW, I was 11 at the time. I was a political junkie, even then.

As it turned out, Bobby Kennedy won the Senate seat. Satirist Tom Lehrer quipped that Massachusetts then had three senators. Ken Keating ended up on the state Court of Appeals, which, despite its name, is New York's highest court. (Whereas the Supreme Court is a trial court; go figure.) He then served as a US Ambassador, first to India, then to Israel.

Move to 1968. Eugene McCarthy runs against an incumbent President and gets 42% of the vote versus 49% for LBJ in the New Hampshire primary on March 12. It's only then that Bobby Kennedy gets into the race. Commentators at the time declared that Kennedy used McCarthy as a "stalking horse" against Johnson, and I tended to agree. LBJ's declaration that he would not run came at the end of March. This was followed on April 4 by the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., which ultimately had a profoundly moderating effect on my world view.

I woke up the morning of June 5 to see the results of the California primary, only to hear the news of RFK's shooting in Los Angeles; he died the next day. I knew many people who were deeply affected by his loss. I too was at a loss, though. While I certainly didn't wish him ill, I wasn't having the same sensation, and I was feeling pretty guilty about it. Yet, as I watched the days of coverage, seeing people lined the railroad tracks as the train carrying his body went by, somehow I started to emphasize with what those folks felt.

A few years later, Tom Clay, a radio disc jockey, born in Binghamton, but by then working out of Los Angeles' KGBS, put together this very odd song, melding the Bacharach-David song "What the World Needs Now" with the Dion hit "Abraham, Martin and John." I've written about this record before, even putting it on as the last song on a mixed CD. The song starts off rather cloyingly, with Clay asking children about prejudice and segregation, and them having no idea, then segues into soldiers preparing for the Viet Nam war. Next, reports of JFK's and MLK's death, with this comment by Bobby Kennedy about the latter: "No one can be certain who next will suffer, from some senseless act of bloodshed."

Then the record uses what I believe to be the audio tape of reporter Andrew West of KRKD, a Mutual Broadcasting System radio affiliate in Los Angeles, who also provided a blow-by-blow account of the struggle with the shooter Sirhan Sirhan in the hotel kitchen pantry, shouting at Olympian Rafer Johnson to "Get the gun, Rafer, get the gun!" and telling others to "get a hold of his thumb and break it, if you have to! Get his thumb! We don't want another Oswald!" (Not so incidentally, I was watching the television 4 1/2 years earlier when Lee Harvey Oswald was shot.)

The next thing heard is Senator Edward Kennedy, eulogizing Bobby: "My brother need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it." Ted Kennedy's voice cracks during that section, and my own pain, largely missing at the time, except as a supporter of others who mourned, came into fruition; it gets to me every time I hear it. The remaining Kennedy brother concluded his eulogy, by quoting George Bernard Shaw: "Some men see things as they are and say 'Why?' I dream things that never were and say, 'Why not?'"

In retrospect, I think that Bobby Kennedy was transforming from a cool, calculating politician to a more truly compassionate man, and I mourn his death now far more than I did at the time.

Here are the lyrics to the song.

The YouTube video, which may not be historically accurate. I swear it's David Brinkley's voice I hear when Walter Cronkite is on the screen.

Oh, and like so much in this campaign, I thought the Hillary Clinton "gaffe" re: RFK's assassination was a non-issue.


ROG

Interconnectedness

I got one of those invitations to be LinkedIn to a social networking page. I recognized the person, so I said yes. Later that morning, that same guy, who is a sales rep for a database service we use at work called to see how we were doing with the service. (I had previously spoken to him and complained about the interface of the database.) This led me to ask him, "what's the benefit of the social network?" I can if he can just call me up, I don't need to be "connected" to him. He explained that people that one of us is linked to is vetted, in a way. I scratched my head, knowing some people with hundreds of MySpace "friends",e.g., are no more connected than people one night see at a bus stop.

I've gone to parties, and because I tend to be the one who tends more to Lydia than her mother on those occasions, I'll not have a substantial conversation with anyone. I've gone to these father/child breakfast things at Lydia's day care, and except for a couple dads I'd talk with previously, I didn't really get to know any of them. We are in the same room, but there's no real connection.

So how does one get to "know" people? I'm on a couple listservs at work, and just by people asking questions and answering them, I get a feel for the way their minds work. Certainly, I've got a sense for people via their blogs, but especially when I've exchanged music with them. I was reorganizing my music over the weekend - using drawers I bought at a library auction - and the mixed CDs of Green and Dymowski and Burgas and Brown (come back, Kelly!) and Brown and Bacardi all show up in the same drawer. I've never met any of them (well, except for Green), but I feel that I know them better than people I've seen face to face recently. That's both kinda weird and kinda nice.
***
I'm enjoying listening to discs from Thom (two discs) and Tosy. ROG

Songs That Move Me, 100-91

100. As - Stevie Wonder.
This song is good until it gets to the "preach" segment; then it's transcendent.
Feeling: as though I were at a revival meeting.


99. Nothing Compares 2 U - Sinead O'Connor.
Based pretty much on the strength of the vocal alone. That octave leap on "Nothing", e.g.
Feeling: longing.


98. No More Tear-Stained Makeup - Martha and the Vandellas.
I wish I could find the lyrics to this Smokey Robinson-penned tune on the Internet, because there's a lyric couplet in the second verse has a line that's really a mouthful. On the Watchout LP.
No More Tear-Stained Makeup -Martha Reeves and the Vandellas
HERE.
Feeling: Like singing along.

97. I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow - Foggy Mountain Boys.
The hit from O Brother Where Art Thou. It's the quality of Dan Tyminski's vocal, along with the harmony vocals and the instruments, that work for me.
Feeling: what a hoot!


96. Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen - Santana.
The first part wouldn’t have made the list, but that the second half seals the deal. I may have become aware of Santana from the Woodstock movie, which I sat through twice.
Feeling: transcendent.


95. Papa Was a Rolling Stone - the Temptations.
It is that lengthy, luscious introduction that Dennis Edwards acknowledges added a bit of an edge to his voice when he finally got to sing "It was the third of September."
Feeling: that I can finally exhale when the vocal comes on.


94. Losing My Religion - R.E.M.
Such a musically delicate song for such moving lyrics.
Feeling: doubt.


93. Cannonball - the Breeders.
It was loud and infectious. But what made it is the modulation of key early on. On a 4-song CD.
Feeling: I'm alive.


92. Takin' It To the Streets-the Doobie Brothers.
The first song I heard with the Michael McDonald vocal. It became a more predictable sound eventually, but when I first experienced it, it felt fresh. From the first greatest hits LP.
Feeling: as the title says.
HERE.
Also, this version from No Nukes.


91. What's That You're Doin’- Paul McCartney with Stevie Wonder.
It came out at a point in the early ‘80s that Stevie started getting squishy (I Just Called to Say I Love You), so this was more to form. Much better than the OTHER Wonder/Macca song on the Tug of War album, Ebony and Ivory.
Feeling: Stevie's back!

ROG

Deadly

Weird. There have been lots of famous or semi-famous people who've died recently that have been in some way significant to me. In addition to the ones I've mentioned, there was Dick Martin, who not only hosted Laugh In but directed a number of fine shows, notahbly the Bob Newhart Show. then there was the guy who wrote the Star Trk theme, Alexander Courage.

Then yesterday, Bo Diddley with that rectangular guitar;

Even if you didn't know the musician, maybe you remember this commercial:

Also dying yesterday, Yves St. Laurent, who was paired in an ABC News story yesterday. Fashion just isn't my thing, but even I surely knew the name.

But the recent death that touched me most was not famous at all. it was the death
of Kathina Thomas, a 10-year-old girl killed by a stray bullet not two miles from my house. It made me sad and angry and a tad bit nervous. My condolences to the family.
ROG

100 Things That Bug Me

Not only do I show my lack of imagination by doing another meme, I cop it from guy I copped it from LAST week. I even stole some of his answers, in italics, as well as some of the answers of the person HE swiped the meme from; those answers are marked with **.

It's one hundred things that bug me, annoy me, or fill me with rage, no particular order, except I didn't move Jaquandor's responses.

1. The notion that we need a whole new format for home video already. DVD is fine!

2. "Common courtesy" gone uncommon. "Excuse me", "please", "thank you".

3. People who seem to be oblivious to how much space they take up in a limited area, such as a supermarket aisle, with the cart and the person positioned so no one can pass from either direction.

4. "Right on red" means stop, yield, go.

5. People driving with cell phones. It's not that it's illegal in NYS that bothers me; it's the fact that almost everyone who has almost hit me going right on red had a cellphone in his or her hand.

6. Bicyclists who bike badly, riding on the wrong side of the street, or wildly on the sidewalk, barely missing pedestrians. Makes it harder for the responsible bicyclists.

7. The Religious Wrong, I mean Right, for too many reasons.

8. Poor signage, especially accompanied by a snippy sales clerk who doesn't know why one can't magically discern where the bathroom is.

9. Disgusting public bathrooms.

10. Cigarette butts. On the very first earth day, I picked up over 1000 cigarette butts from my high school lawn, and they've been the bane of my existence ever since.

11. People who pass me on the road while I'm riding the bike, then make a quick right turn so I can nearly plow into the passenger-side door.

12. Yielding to pedestrians at crosswalks just isn't SOP in Albany, NY.

13. New CDs or LPs that skip.

14. When I buy a favorite food item...and then forget about it until it's gone moldy and nasty. That bugs me.

15. Plastic "clamshell" packaging. Not only is it environmentally unfriendly, but it's a strain to open.

16. The largest Wal-Mart in the company is in Albany County, NY.

17. Movie trailers that give away too much.

18. The current President of the United States.

19. The current Congress that, until recently, showed few cojones in dealing with the POTUS.

20. That there is almost certainly enough food and medicine in the world, but that distribution and money allow so many to die of hunger and treatable diseases.

21. The Supreme Court's recent decision on the death penalty.

22. The number of people released on DNA evidence after sometimes decades in prison, 17 of them in Dallas County, TX alone. I should be happy they were finally exonerated, but their lives are all but ruined.

23. Drunk drivers.

24. Most canned vegetables.

25. Marshmallow Peeps. Oh, how horrible.

26. Those smokers hanging outside their buildings forcing me to run through.

27. Redesigned web sites that are more difficult to use than it used to be. NYS DOT, this means YOU.

28. John McCain. He's no more a "straight-talker" than anyone else, he thinks that the problems the world faces right now are to maintain the same policies from the previous eight years that enabled, exacerbated, or outright created those problems, and it strikes me as odd that people whose distaste for Hillary Clinton includes the notion that she's essentially been running for President since 2000 don't notice that McCain's been at it even longer.

29. Revisionist history.

30. Mel Brooks' History of the World, Part 1. A bunch of pissing jokes.

31. Dirty movie theaters, especially sticky floors.

32. The international conspiracy to get people to buy the same thing more than once; e.g., releasing individual seasons of a TV show, THEN the box set with "extras".

33. Global warming and our seeming inability to do anything about it.

34. People who are upset with something a person does, but they don't tell that person. Almost inevitably, it leads to a larger confrontation later.

35. One-party rule. Does not matter which party.

36. Oh, and thanks a lot, you Homeland Security nitwits, for making it more annoying for us to go to Canada. I'm sure that tons of stuff that would have been blown up by terrorists otherwise is still standing because you're all vigilantly giving people like me the skunk-eye when we try to come home.

37. Continuing with that theme, thanks a lot, you Homeland Security nitwits, for making flying even more of a complete pain in the ass than it already is, because there [will] be some flying in my future at some point.

38. Political pundits and talk show show hosts who seem to think if they can talk louder and/or more frequently than the other person, they are somehow factually correct. A special award to Nancy Grace, who does it even when no one else on the set.

**39. People who act like a bad movie adaptation of a book or comic or TV show or something somehow destroys the original.

**40. Guys who give me a weak handshake.

41. All those prescription drug ads that are driving up the cost of medicine.

**42. People who are excessively proud of themselves for not owning a TV.

**43. Internet scammers, credit card skimmers, identity thieves, and other people I have to take extra security measures for.

44. People who insist that having my daughter attend public school in Albany is tantamount to child abuse.

45. People who complain about someone's harmless (at worse) or useful (at best) mission that they don't get and complain that he should be doing something else. Example: a guy goes around correcting signs that have bad grammar and a bunch of folks say, "Get a life!" That IS his life; why does it bug you so?

46. Bad grammar.

47. People who think that the mere act of saying the words "Excuse me" confers upon them the right to just barrel through wherever they happen to be, without waiting for response or acknowledgment or for the people in front of them to just plain move.

**48. Internet "celebrities."

49. Waiters/waitresses who just don't listen.

50. People who ask for "honest feedback" but don't really want it.

51. The elevators in my office building that close, then open again for no reason, then close again, making a whiny noise.

52. People who call at work who launch into what they want without even identifying themselves.

53. My armoire. I never asked for it, but we got it when the child was born. I like putting my socks and underwear in drawers, not this monstrosity that doesn't keep them in right.

54. "Permanent press" shirts that aren't permanent press.

55. I hate it when I'm leaving the house with my backpack, come back to the house to get something I forgot, then lock the door, leaving the backpack inside.

56. Paper cuts.

57. Mail-in rebates.

58. Loud cell phone calls on public conveyances.

59. Sunburn. Especially now.

60. People who don't curb their dogs, the results of which show up on my lawn, my shoes...

61. Most meetings, especially the top down ones, where they say, "Does anyone have anything else to say?" Of course they don't; the leadership's droned on for 90 minutes, and your fellow minions just want to get out of there.

62. A whole bunch of people, including Paris Hilton and Perez Hilton, whose purpose in life is beyond me.

63. Most movie cliches that Roger Ebert has pointed out, e.g., you can just tell from the music that the buddy of the lead character is going to die.or be seriously hurt.

64. People who complain about the "war on Christmas". Don't worry; Christmas has won.

65. People who can't take a compliment well.

66. Trying to find a parking space around Washington Park in Albany when an event (Tulip Festival, Corporate Challenge run) takes place there.

67. Lewis Black did a piece on this on the Emmys - the tease for another show DURING the show you are watching. Do you want me to watch the show I'm watching NOW or not.

68. People in cars that make right turns from an extreme left lane. (Atlanta, at least in 1995, was notorious for this, as is Boston every time I've been there.)

69. Not enough places offer free WiFi.

70. When the price of something doesn’t include some obvious things. You get a quote for getting a tire changed for $50, but then there is a disposal fee, balancing fee,
etc. and ends up costing $90.

71. Businesses that charge sales tax on items that don't require sales tax.

72. My old phone bill. I never DID understand what the heck half those charges were, and it turned out to be far more expensive than the original quote.

73. People who boast about how stupid they are.

74. Open casket funerals.

75. Yard work. Just because I mow the lawn twice a week - and I have to, if I don't want to borrow a power mower - doesn't mean I like it.

76. Wet socks.

77. Insert my usual rant about people who refuse to use their local library here. Reading! For free! Why wouldn't you do this?!

78. Corporate officers who make 200 times the average worker and the business isn't even making money.

79. Micromanagers.

80. Haggling.

81. People who play the one-up game. They always have to be busier, more tired, and more stressed than you are.

82. People who think what they see on TV must be true and accurate, even when they are watching FOX News.

83. Bill O'Reilly.

84. Littering, especially when the garbage can is FIVE FEET AWAY.

85. Iceberg lettuce. Why do we still cultivate this stuff? It serves no useful purpose whatsoever. It's not particularly vitamin-filled, it's lacking in flavor, it's just plain icky.

86. People who honk in traffic. OK for the toot to wake up the driver asleep at the wheel, but the laying on of the horn just aggravates the other drivers, making me (on the bike) VERY nervous.

87. Countries that still insist on whaling.

88. Non-instinctive Internet shopping carts. And they wonder why they have so many abandoned carts?

89. Most automated phone systems.

90. Allergy season.

91. Forwarded e-mails that direct me to send it on to three, five, ten people. Sorry, I've already deleted it.

92. Misplacing my glasses, mostly because I need my glasses to FIND my glasses.

93. Waking up in the morning, stumbling to the kitchen, turning on the light... – and only then discovering that I'd never put the previous night's leftovers away. Even when food was a lot cheaper than it is now, I hated having to throw out half a tuna noodle casserole because I forgot to put the thing in the fridge.

94. Sports programming that offer unrealistic running times. The World Series games in three hours, including a 30-minute pregame? Dream on. The Masters golf tournament always ends past 7 pm ET, as do the 4 pm ET NFL games.

95. Bullies.

96. People who tell me my life's an empty void without some technology (blackberry, iPhone). Maybe it is; I'll let you know if I get one (an iPhone, not a life.)

97. Government entities who were designed to protect the people but end up helping the entities they were supposed to be regulating (FCC, FDA: guilty as charged).

98. Wine snobs.

99. Forgetting the good dreams.

100. My ability to be drawn to the negative.

OK, so there are one hundred things that annoy me. No tagging, here. If you're inclined, have at it. ROG

Take a stroll through my mind

From time to time I read these blog improvement posts such as the best time of the year to post to your blog and This is the MOST IMPORTANT BLOG POST of 2008, so READ IT!
This is the easiest thing you can do to attract clients on the web, and it's free, and fast. I think these have value, and sometimes I even do them, though not always.

The harder thing is to find the balance. Mr. Dymowski wrote about some of this in his 10 things he's learned about blogging, such as the balance between doing the blog and networking, or avoiding the blank page. Well, sometime during the month, I got unbalanced, maybe literally. I was away for three days at a work conference and I decided to write nothing. The upside is that I didn't have to haul the laptop - which is REALLY slow - or go bother people to borrow their computers. And since I had content written for the days I was away, it didn't have an immediate effect on the output.

So much of the time when I'm blogging, I write about what strikes the muse. So I might write a post about Flag Day - indeed, I already have, and you won't see it until June 14. I've also finished my post for June 20 and August 10. Really. But without writing regularly, I found writing to suddenly become onerous.

Think about an exercise routine. You do it every day, or three times a week, and you take off a few days. If you're like some people, it's hard to get back into the groove. In fact, because I've missed riding my bike when I was away in April and again in May for the conference, and I didn't feel well a couple of days, and it was cold and/or rainy a couple days, and Lydia was running late a couple days, I've ridden my bicycle far less at this point in the year than I have in previous years. Once I get derailed, it can be very difficult to get back on track.

Well, the same thing was true for blogging. I'm usually working at least a little bit ahead - I'm writing this on Friday morning before Lydia wakes up - but for the three days of the Memorial Day weekend, I had to get up and write something for the blog. What I realized: I HATE GETTING UP AND WRITING FOR THE BLOG. And, stupidly - you might think - I was writing at least some of those nights before, for a future post, because that's where the muse took me.

Now, you might say, "Well, just pass on that day." The trouble is that, to quote Billy Joel, "I go to extremes". It was more like, "I think I'll just quit blogging. Forever. Period."

But that didn't work, either. How do I explain this? All the things I used to sit around thinking about writing about, before I started blogging, would float in and out of my head, with no place to go. It was cacophonous, all the storylines in my brain. The GREAT thing about the blog is that it severely lessens the noise in my head. So, even if I don't post it - and there are failed posts, posts I've written, but for whatever reason I never published - I still need to WRITE about. The blog is the methodology of publishing it, as it were, but the actual writing, removing certain stories from my mind into the keyboard, is a grand psychological release.

I saw Iron Man last weekend. My brain has composed what I THINK is a different POV on the movie. But until I actually write it down, and a musical I saw, and something that happened at the Greek festival, and some amazingly stupid and costly thing I did, it remains as an out-of-tune symphony in my head.

Specific to Memorial Day weekend, while I could have blown off two of the days, I could not have blown off the third. For that was the 26th of the month, and I seem to have a "contact with God" to write about Lydia on that date. (Which reminds me, I have this Will Eisner thing to write about.)

So I hope this view of my pathology makes sense. I believe it was inspired, at least a little bit, by this post from Mr. Velez. Thank you, Anthony.

ROG

Inspired by Originalville #2

I had so many songs that I could have used but didn't, such as the original version of Handy Man, done originally by Jimmy Jones, with James Taylor having the big hit. But I did have enough I decided to do a second disc of originals that became bigger hits later.

1. Hush by Billy Joe Royal.
A big hit (#4)for Deep Purple in 1968.
2. Wherever I Lay My Hat by Marvin Gaye.
I only knew the Paul Young (#70, 1983) version
3. I'm a Believer by Neil Diamond.
Neil provided lots of options: Solitary Man (Chris Isaac, Johnny Cash), Kentucky woman (Deep Purple), Red, Red wine (UB40). But I opted for the Monkees' song (#1, 1966), who performed it first, before Neil (#51, 1971).
4. Mary Mary-the Monkees.
I recall the uproar in the musical purists who wondered why the pre-fab band band was doing a Butterfield Blues Band song. Then it was revealed that it was actually a Mike Nesmith song. The complaints went away.
5. Heaven Is In Your Mind by Traffic.
6. Eli's Coming by Laura Nyro.
7. The Loner by Neil Young.
8. Lady Samantha by Elton John.
Now we've come to the Three Dog night portion of our disc. Brian Ibbott did a Three Dog Night Originalville back in February, but he didn't use these songs, so I did. Laura Nyro wrote lots of songs you've heard of; unfortunately, she died at 49 of ovarian cancer. The 3DN version of Samantha was a friend's favorite song; I'd never heard the EJ version until Mr. Hembeck turned me onto it.
9. You can Leave Your Hat On by Randy Newman.
I could have included a Randy Newman song, Mama Told Me Not To Come, as another 3DN tune, but since Brian had used it, I opted for the song that Joe Cocker covered.
10. War-The Temptations.
It was not unusual that multiple Motown artists would record the same song, but due to the nature of this song, this one was a bit complicated; see this Wikipedia link.
11. Strawberry Letter 23-Shuggie Otis.
When I came up with this concept, this was probably the first song that was definitely going to be included. Shuggie Otis is the son of Johnny Otis, who I wrote about earlier this year. Even Brian didn't know about the original. The Brothers Johnson version went to #5 in 1977.
12, Giving Him Something He Can feel-Aretha Franklin.
The very last track on the QoS 4-CD box set, but, though it went to #28 in 1976, I was not familiar with it, and I didn't really notice it until En Vogue had had a Top Six version in 1992.
13. Tell the Truth-Derek & the Dominoes.
This a total cheat. This is the original version done by the band, released as a single in 1970, but then withdrawn. The version that is on the Layla album is slower and bluesier; this version is more frenetic, and for me, favored.

I had stayed late at work last Friday night working on this on Roxio, but it practically made my computer explode. Seriously: Corrupted error report: Unfortunately, the error report you submitted is corrupted and cannot be analyzed. Corrupted error reports are rare. They can be caused by hardware or software problems, and they usually indicate a serious problem with your computer.

Then my old and good friend Uthaclena came up on Saturday, upgraded my computer, and installed Nero. Sunday, I was having the problem that the disc drive would hang up unless I closed in and out of Nero, which eventually corrected itself. Add to that the child thief. I mention all this as explanation/apology to those waiting. Since I finally got a groove going, I made 20 of each disc. Six are going to the other Mixed CD participants; seven are going to my work colleagues, some of which were helpful in creating the playlist; three to some helpful folks, such as Messrs. Hembeck and Uthaclena. One to my sister; oh, golly, one for ME. That leaves three for the first three people who ask.
ROG